SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium

You can efficiently evaluate your designs for nonlinear and dynamic response, dynamic loading, and composite materials with the powerful tools of SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium. SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium adds to the capabilities of SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional to provide valuable insights to improve product reliability in the most cost effective manner, no matter the material or use environment.

Video: First Look SOLIDWORKS Simulation

SOLIDWORKS Simulation solutions include:

Find out quickly and efficiently how dropping a product onto a “floor” will affect its structural integrity using drop test analysis with SOLIDWORKS Simulation. Understanding impact strength is an important consideration to ensure an adequate service life for many portable products. Multiple drops must be accounted for to ensure that the product continues to perform correctly and meets requirements for strength and safety.

Tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS CAD, drop test analysis using SOLIDWORKS Simulation can be a regular part of your design process—reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework or delays, and saving time and development costs.

Drop Test Analysis Overview

In a drop test analysis, the time varying stresses and deformations due to an initial impact of the product with a rigid or flexible planar surface (the floor) are calculated. As the product deforms, secondary internal and external impacts are also calculated, locating critical weaknesses or failure points, as well as stresses and displacements. Drop test analysis using SOLIDWORKS Simulation enables you to visualize the elastic stress wave propagating through the system so that the correct assembly methods are used.

The maximum “g force” experienced by individual components is one of the primary unknowns before a drop test. This is a critical parameter since many electronic and mechanical components are not rated for further use above a specified maximum g force. Using drop test analysis with SOLIDWORKS Simulation, designers and engineers can measure the time varying accelerations (g force) at any location within the product, providing critical design information and reducing the number of physical tests needed. A design team can easily verify performance while they design and select the correct materials, component shape, and fixture methods to ensure that critical components stay within their “max g force” limits.

Determine thermal effects on a given design—or the impact of design changes on component temperatures—using fast, efficient thermal structural analysis with SOLIDWORKS Simulation.

Tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS CAD, thermal structural analysis using SOLIDWORKS Simulation can be a regular part of your design process—reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework and delays, and saving time and development costs.

Thermal Structural Analysis Overview

Thermal structural analysis is the application of the finite element method to calculate the temperature distribution within a solid structure, which is due to the thermal inputs (heat loads), outputs (heat loss), and thermal barriers (thermal contact resistance) in your design. Thermal structural analysis solves the conjugate heat transfer problem with the simulation calculation of thermal conduction, convection, and radiation.

Two methods of heat transfer—convection and radiation—are applied as boundary conditions in thermal structural analysis. Both convection (set by a surface film coefficient) and radiation (surface emissivity) can emit and receive thermal energy to and from the environment, but only radiation transfers thermal energy between disconnected bodies in the assembly.

Radiation—In order to calculate the effect of heat leaving one component and being transported by a moving fluid to another component, a SOLIDWORKS Simulation thermal fluid analysis must be carried out, as the fluid impact has to be calculated.

Convection—Overcome the difficulty of determining accurate convection surface film coefficients for complex geometries as SOLIDWORKS Simulation simply imports accurate film coefficients from SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation to calculate a more accurate thermal structural analysis.

SOLIDWORKS Simulation calculates either the steady state or transient temperature fields due to:

Applied fixed or initial temperatures

Heat power/flux input or outputs

Surface convection rates

Radiation—removing heat from the systems

Thermal contact resistance between components

With the temperature field calculated, thermal stresses can be easily calculated, to ensure correct product performance and safety.

Quickly and efficiently carry out stress analysis of plastic components and rubber parts with SOLIDWORKS Simulation while you design to optimize material selection and part design, ensuring high product quality, performance, and safety.

Tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS CAD, stress analysis of plastic and rubber parts using SOLIDWORKS Simulation can be a regular part of your design process—reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework and delays, and saving time and development costs.

Plastic and Rubber Part Stress Analysis Overview

The stress analysis of plastic and rubber components, or assemblies containing plastic or rubber parts, requires the use of nonlinear stress analysis methods, since these types if parts generally have a complex load deformation relationship (that is, the basic relationship assumption of Hooke’s Law is violated).

To carry out plastic component stress analysis, the plastic stress-strain curve must be known and entered into the SOLIDWORKS material database to achieve the best results. This database is easily customizable to include your particular material requirements. You can choose from:

Uncover potential issues early and make adjustments during design by conducting vibration analysis with SOLIDWORKS Simulation. You can identify trouble spots that could cause problems (such as, resonance, fatigue, and assembly techniques) and avoid costly rework and delays during the prototype phase.

SOLIDWORKS Simulation provides detailed vibration data through frequency analysisand dynamic analysis to ensure product performance and safety. Vibration analysis is an important consideration when an applied load is not constant (static), inducing unstable modes of vibration (resonance) which result in a shortened service life and cause unexpected failures.

Vibration Analysis Overview

The vibrations your product may experience can reduce performance, shorten product life, or even cause a catastrophic failure. The effects of vibrations, which are simply time-varying or transient loads on your product, are difficult to predict:

Vibration loads can excite dynamic responses in a structure resulting in high dynamic stresses.

Ignoring dynamic stresses could lead you to assume that a product or structure has a higher factor of safety (FoS) than it actually does.

Quickly and efficiently investigate the natural frequencies of a design—with and without loads and boundary conditions—with easy-to-use SOLIDWORKS Simulation. Ensure that the natural modes of vibration are away from environmental forcing frequencies, indicating that the design will meet the required service life.

Tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS CAD, frequency analysis using SOLIDWORKS Simulation can be a regular part of your design process, reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework and delays, and saving time and development costs.

Frequency Analysis Overview

Understanding the natural frequency is important in predicting possible failure modes or the types of analysis required to best understand performance. Every design has its preferred frequencies of vibration, called resonant frequencies, and each such frequency is characterized by a specific shape (or mode) of vibration.

Frequency analysis with SOLIDWORKS Simulation uses an Eigen value approach to determine the natural modes of vibration for any geometry. If a design’s natural modes and its expected service vibration environment are closely matched, a harmonic resonance may occur and lead to excessive loads which will result in failure.

By understanding the design’s natural modes of vibration, you can carry out preventative measures, such as changes in material, component sections, mass dampers, and so forth, so that component natural frequencies do not coincide with the frequency of the loading environment. This results in a design that would not only perform as desired, but also have a longer service life.

To push the natural frequency of a design out of the critical range, you can:

Tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS CAD, SOLIDWORKS Simulation solutions and capabilities can be a regular part of your design process—reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework and delays, and saving time and development costs.

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Overview

SOLIDWORKS Simulation uses the displacement formulation of the finite element method to calculate component displacements, strains, and stresses under internal and external loads. The geometry under analysis is discretized using tetrahedral (3D), triangular (2D), and beam elements, and solved by either a direct sparse or iterative solver. SOLIDWORKS Simulation can use either an h or p adaptive element type, providing a great advantage to designers and engineers as the adaptive method ensures that the solution has converged.

Integrated with SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD, finite element analysis using SOLIDWORKS Simulation knows the exact geometry during the meshing process. And the more accurately the mesh matches the product geometry, the more accurate the analysis results will be.

The majority of FEA calculations involve metallic components, just as the majority of industrial components are made of metal. The analysis of metal components can be carried out by either linear or nonlinear stress analysis. Which analysis approach you use depends upon how far you want to push the design:

If you want to ensure the geometry remains in the linear elastic range (that is, once the load is removed, the component returns to its original shape), then linear stress analysis may be applied, as long as the rotations and displacements are small relative to the geometry. For such an analysis, factor of safety (FoS) is a common design goal.

Evaluate the effects of post-yield load cycling on the geometry, a nonlinear stress analysis should be carried out. In this case, the impact of strain hardening on the residual stresses and permanent set (deformation) is of most interest.

The analysis of nonmetallic components (such as, plastic or rubber parts) should be carried out using nonlinear stress analysis methods (link to SOLIDWORKS Nonlinear Stress Analysis capability page), due to their complex load deformation relationship.

SOLIDWORKS Simulation uses FEA methods to calculate the displacements and stresses in your product due to operational loads such as:

Forces

Pressures

Accelerations

Temperatures

Contact between components

Loads can be imported from thermal, flow, and motion Simulation studies to perform multiphysics analysis.

Linear stress analysis with SOLIDWORKS Simulation enables designers and engineers to quickly and efficiently validate quality, performance, and safety—all while creating their design.

Tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS CAD, linear stress analysis using SOLIDWORKS Simulation can be a regular part of your design process, reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework and delays, and saving time and development costs.

Linear Stress Analysis Overview

Linear stress analysis calculates the stresses and deformations of geometry given three basic assumptions:

The part or assembly under load deforms with small rotations and displacements

The product loading is static (ignores inertia) and constant over time

The material has a constant stress strain relationship (Hooke’s law)

SOLIDWORKS Simulation uses finite element analysis (FEA) methods to discretize design components into solid, shell, or beam elements and uses linear stress analysis to determine the response of parts and assemblies due to the effect of:

Forces

Pressures

Accelerations

Temperatures

Contact between components

Loads can be imported from thermal, flow, and motion Simulation studies to perform multiphysics analysis.

In order to carry out stress analysis, component material data must be known. The standard SOLIDWORKS CAD material database is pre-populated with materials that can be used by SOLIDWORKS Simulation, and the database is easily customizable to include your particular material requirements.

CAD-embedded SOLIDWORKS Simulation enables every designer and engineer to carry out structural simulation on parts and assemblies with finite element analysis (FEA) while they work to improve and validate performance and reduce the need for costly prototypes or design changes later on.

Structural simulation covers a wide range of FEA problems—from the performance of a part under a constant load to the stress analysis of a moving assembly under dynamic loading, all of which can be determined using SOLIDWORKS Simulation tools.

Structural Analysis Overview

Designers and engineers primarily use structural simulation to determine the strength and stiffness of a product by reporting component stress and deformations. The type of structural analysis you perform depends on the product being tested, the nature of the loads, and the expected failure mode:

A short/stocky structure will most likely fail due to material failure (that is, the yield stress is exceeded).

A long slender structure will fail due to structural instability (geometric buckling).

With time dependent loads, the structure will require some form of dynamic analysis to analyze component strength.

The component material you use can also influence which type of analysis you perform:

Metallic components, under moderate loads, generally require some form of linear analysis, where the material has a linear relationship between the part deformation and the applied load below the materials yield point

Rubber and plastics require a nonlinear analysis, as elastomers have a nonlinear relationship between the part deformation and the applied load. This is also the case for metals beyond their yield point.